In the end it was young rising star Karl McPhillips who won the tournament outright after five straight wins and an exciting last round draw against Mark Quinn who then had to content himself with joint second, with no less than five other big name players - in alphabetical order, Colm Daly, Mark Heidenfeld, Mel O Cinneide, Petr Velicka, Phillip Short sharing the spoils.

Last years joint winner Petr Velicka and this years number two seed slipped up when he drew in round 3 [video footage available] and round 6 [fighting draw against Mak Heidenfeld ]but he had an impressive and exciting win against his fellow joint winner from last year when he took apart top seed Alexander Baburins Alekhine defence with apparent ease. His earlier draw against Gerry O Connell leaving him out of the prizes as is so often the case in this exciting and sometimes unpredictable event.

My own efforts to win the event were undone when I lost to Mark Quinn in round 4 [annotated below] but curiously in the next round Mark agreed a rapid and mysterious draw with Mark Heidenfeld after only a few moves. When I asked about this after the event I was informed that it had been an exchange French so that was more or less that. All in all Karl was a popular winner and apparently this victory has helped to secure his participation in the forthcoming Irish Open which is starting on July 4th.

As always the event was run smoothly and the whole atmosphere of the event was one of social chess at it's best in a very nice venue and seaside town. Below there is some video footage [as usual with the caveat of - best viewed with broadband ] and a couple of light annotations from two of my own games which were rather amusing, I hope.

The position below was a key starting point in my game against Mark Quinn. The opening had seemed to go well for me and I already had built up a small time advantage, which is often so crucial in these rapid play events. However Marks last move was a major blunder which I did not notice and only became aware of after the game when Mark pointed it out to me.

It turns out that in my eagerness to keep moving quickly by playing ok moves fast I missed a chance to win a piece quite easily and cheaply. White to move now had the very strong move Bxd5 and if Black recaptures White can then play Nxc6 and the bishop on E7 hangs. Instead I played Nc4 which is ok for keeping a small advantage but bad oversight nonetheless.

Still, a few moves later and I had increased my advantage to very major proportions and had the pleasant position below. Black has just played Ne7 to c6 which is a big blunder that should lose quickly enough, instead Ng6 would have offered a better chance of defence for Black, though after one sample variation [24...Ng6 25.Bc2 Qe8 26.Rc7 Nxe5 27.dxe5 Bxe5 28.Bxh7+ Kxh7 29.Qh5+ Kg8 30.Qxe5] White does have an appreciable advantage.

Now I started to falter and wasted a lot of time looking at too many different variations and ideas. A moment of clarity and calm calculation would have seen me either play the winning move Qd3 now ,or after I now played Nxc6. which still left me with a chance to wrap things up fairly easily. Can you guess the winning move for White now? Yes it is still Qd3!

Inexplicably I now used up a lot of time and avoided playing the simple and strong move Qd3 and played Bc2 instead. This is still likely to be good enough for a win with lots of work but I was making matters worse by falling behind on the clock which tunred out to be a critical mistake. After Bc2 Black played the only move Bb3 when White could have played Rxc6 and stay a pawn up for nothing, but instead I went into panic mode and lost my balance completely. Going further behind on the clock with only an equal position. This is a classic case of paying a heavy price for failing to take your chances when you were given them. I tried to exchange off pieces and keep some winning chances but by now I should have been moving quickly with a view to just make a draw.

After the game Mark correctly pointed out that I should have now played h3 to solve my back rank issues. Playing g3 instead only gave Black some new ways to create some threats. Mark then played the strong move ...Qd5 and I played the weak Rc7, there followed ...a5, Ra7 h6 , Qe1 with a critical position below

I knew I was in some trouble now as I had fallen very far behind on the clock and was in a difficult position which Mark now played very well, and placed me under so much pressure with a few clever moves. Instead of now defending the pawn on A5 Mark played the strong move Rfd8 which caused me to think even more over what to do, and after I played Rook back to C7 Mark then played the excellent move Rfd6 which stopped me from trying to exchange a pair of Rooks and from this position below I could not defend against the many threats Mark went on to create. I lost a few moves later. Still an interesting and curious game.

On a more positive note for me I had a funny win in the last round which was quite instructive of opposite coloured bishop positions in which the key factor is who is attacking. I had squandered a nice opening advantage and ended up with an equal endgame which nevertheless still had some curious features. In the position below things look pretty tame but after Blacks last move [...f5] White has some cheeky ideas.

In the position above White is over protecting his C pawn but now decides to go on the offensive and after White now played Rd1 Black took the bait and the trap door slams shut.After Rxc5 [Re7 was equal] White played the simple Re2 and Black was doomed. He tried Rc3 but then White was able to ignore the threat to the bishop with the strong Rd7 [threatens mate with Re8]

Black tried ...Bf8 but after Re8 Kg8, Bh5 Black lost on time in the position below which offers no chance to avoid mate. For example if Black plays ...Rd3 then Rf7 is lethal.